Beloved Halloween-themed restaurant Beetle House LA facing potential closure, makes final plea for help

Beetle House LA to close July 1st

A popular Halloween-themed restaurant and bar in LA is set to close.

LOS ANGELES - A one-of-a-kind Halloween-themed restaurant and bar in Hollywood is set to close. But before they do, they are making one last plea to the community for support. 

What we know:

After eight years of serving up spooky thrills, Beetle House LA announced on Instagram this week that could soon close due to financial difficulties.

The unique venue gained a cult-like following as a fully immersive, year-round Halloween-themed restaurant — complete with live performances and a nightclub.

Online, they listed various reasons for their closure, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent LA wildfires, and the current immigration crisis, but they said the main reason was due to "third-party theft and broken agreements."

In the Instagram post they wrote, "Most businesses wouldn’t share this publicly… but we’ve never been like most businesses. This is embarrassing. It’s heartbreaking. It’s not the post we ever wanted to write—but it’s the truth. You’ve been our family, our friends, our community for 8 years we need to be honest with you. Where we’re at: We’re facing some really hard decisions. Whether we close, or move, or take one last shot to save this place… we don’t know yet.

How did we get here? The pandemic shut us down for over a year. An investor pulled out, leaving us with a $500,000 hole. A manager stole $60,000 and vanished. Then came the LA fires. Now the immigration crisis that’s devastated hospitality in this city. We’re not just a restaurant. We’re a restaurant, a bar, a nightclub, dinner theater, and a spooky immersive experience—all rolled into one. And that comes with huge operating costs: $50,000 a week just to break even. $40,000+ monthly rent. $30,000+ weekly payroll. We’ve drained our finances. Borrowed during the pandemic. Pushed as hard as we could for as long as we could."

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The post went on to say that the owners are exploring ways to keep the business afloat, including fundraising, private investors, and/or relocating.

"We need to raise a significant amount of money to pay our bills and our rent, etc. We still think we have a lot more to offer, and we want to stay alive, but we just don’t have the options right now," a GoFundMe read. 

What's next:

In their Instagram post, the bar said "as it stands today… Beetle House LA, in its current form, will cease to exist after July," and is looking at either closing, relocating or, fundraising to stay open.

 A GoFundMe account has been created to help with fundraising efforts. 

Beetle House was created by Zach Neil and opened as a pop-up restaurant in New York City in April 2016 and Los Angeles in 2017.

Their New York location will remain open.